SBIR-STTR Award

Aerobot vehicles for missions on Titan require envelope materials that are strong, light and durable. Unlike terrestrial balloon materials, these must be able to withstand flexing at temperatures of 90K without developing pinhole leaks. To meet this requirement, it is proposed to use Lamart?s experience in lightweight laminated sailcloth and ultra light film lamination to create a material for this application. This will be a laminated combination of multiple thin films and fabric. Test capabilities will be created and correlated to those already done at NASA-JPL. Literature search and sample testing will determine the appropriate film, adhesive, fibers, and fabric weave. Further testing will determine the minimum manageable film thickness and the minimum amount of adhesive needed to meet the mission requirements. Laminations of multiple layers of thin film will be tested to determine the benefit of this schedule compared to single layer equivalent films. Small quantities of the most promising film and fabric laminate designs will be produced on a narrow width laminator that duplicates the process used to produce full sized products and tested for flex durability.

Potential NASA Commercial Applications:
(LIMIT 150 WORDS) The prime application for the material to be developed under this contract will be for the NASA Titan aerobot program. Other NASA applications would be on other balloons for both terrestrial and extra terrestrial use. Information learned in the design of materials that remain flexible at very low temperatures would be useful for other NASA applications including cryogenic pressure vessel bladders.

Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications:
(LIMIT 150 WORDS) Materials for low temperature industrial applications requiring high strength, light weight, flexibility and low permeation will benefit from the information learned during this research.

Aerobot vehicles for missions on Titan require envelope materials that are strong, light and durable. In particular they must be able to withstand flexing at liquid nitrogen temperatures (77K) without developing pinhole gas leaks. To meet this requirement, it was proposed that a multiple layer laminate of thin PET films would be better than an equivalent thickness single layer of the same film. In the Phase I work, some of the laminating variables were studied. Through this effort, significant improvements in the material for Titan aerobot use were realized. The cold temperature flex durability against pinhole failure was increase by 70% due to changes in the weave counts of the fabric. Tests also demonstrated that a 50% reduction could be made in the adhesive weight used to laminate the films without sacrificing bond or flex durability. This Phase II proposal is for continued development of the Titan aerobot envelope material based on the results of Phase I. Since materials must function as part of a product the proposal also is to begin testing of seaming methods for the material and to prove the results by fabrication of an actual aerobot envelope for pressure testing and possible flight demonstration.

Potential NASA Commercial Applications:
(LIMIT 100 WORDS) Potential use for these types of materials is in other blimp applications such as the DOD project underway to develop an unmanned stratospheric blimp for homeland defense and surveillance. Commercial uses for this technology have been identified as being in cryogenic storage bags for such things as tissue and blood samples. Lamart is a major laminator of fabrics and films for the sail making industry. Lessons learned in this SBIR may be applicable to sail cloth to improve durability and performance.



Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications:
:
(LIMIT 100 WORDS) The prime application for the material to be developed under this contract will be for the NASA Titan aerobot program. Other NASA applications would be on other balloons for both terrestrial and extra terrestrial use. Information learned in the design of materials that remain flexible at very low temperatures would be useful for other NASA and commercial industrial applications including cryogenic pressure vessel bladders.